Don Grigware - Page 8

Actress/singer/vocal coach Susan Edwards Martin, Lady Blues in Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway and star of many other musical shows, recently premiered her solo cabaret show at Upstairs at Vitello's. I reviewed the show and she was sensational.* She is taking the show to Feinstein's 54/Below in New York on March 23. Edwards Martin also has created an original show about the optimistic way she lives her life called, 'Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life!", that had a spectacular one night presentation and is currently waiting in the wings for a full production. Busy, busy, busy, Edwards also recently performed with Musical Theatre Guild as the lead in Minnie's Boys to rave reviews. Ms. Edwards Martin sat down and discussed her career thus far, and about the story behind Unlimited! You'll Have the Time of Her Life! and her latest cabaret show. Before we start to look back I always ask a few less relevant questions about musical theatre.

William A. Reilly has been co-producer/ co-artistic director of Crown City Theatre going on 22 years. Crown has been located at St. Matthew's Church in NoHo for almost 12 years. April 1 the company must leave, as St Matthew's has received a grant to make the spaces a homeless shelter. Reilly sat down recently and talked about what the group will do as they look to the future. Close local spaces are being investigated as rentals until a new permanent space is relegated.

Tuesdays with Morrie/by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom/directed by L. Flint Esquerra/Sierra Madre Playhouse/through March 31 Was there a mentor apart from family who gave you the inspiration to change the way you lived your life? Based on Mitch Alboms book entitled Tuesdays with Morrie in which he details his relationship with Professor Morrie Schwartz at Brandeis U in Massachusetts in the late 70s, the two character play is currently receiving an insightful and enjoyable production at Sierra Madre Playhouse through March 31. With meticulous direction from L. Flint Esquerra and splendid performances from Larry Eisenberg as Morrie and Jackson Kendall as Mitch, the play should be a popular hit with audiences young and old.

D. Scott Eads, who made a big splash last fall at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in Legacy in the Key of Bing. returned to Sterlings Sunday February 17 with a brand new show entitled Love and Other Games. This show continued the musical journey with iconic singers/songwriters who established themselves in night clubs and 60s TV...and some on Broadway and film like Burt Bacharach. What a wonderful selection of music! Oldsters like myself really appreciate heaing great songs from the canon of American standards. Eads was backed throughout with a fabulous three piece combo: Todd Hunter, musical director, at the piano, Gary Wicks on bass and Kevin van den Elzen on drums. He was joined by special guest star Claude Hall, who simply sizzled onstage.

What amazes me about Oscar Wilde''s classic The Importance of Being Earnest is how well it holds up. First performed in 1895 it is a wildly funny satire on Victorian manners and customs. Lady Bracknell (Michael Mullen, pictured above) abhors the very thought of any engagement of marriage of her niece to someone beneath her class, but as the play progresses, Wilde's take on the whole idea of marriage becomes far less serious. Changing one's identity to meet and date a woman is practiced with the utmost glee, akin to contemporary deceit and infidelity. Currently onstage at Crown City Theatre in NoHo, Earnest receives a terrific production, directed with flair by Michaerl J. Marchak and boasting a deliciously comedic cast.

based on a novel by Roy Horniman/book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman/music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak/directed & choreographed by Peggy Hickey/musical director: Julie Lamoureux/3-D Theatricals/Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts/through March 3 Winner of 4 Tony Awards in 2014, A Gentlerman's Guide to Love and Murder is a devilishly clever musical sendup of the British aristocracy circa 1909. Produ

Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole/book by Colman Domingo & Patricia McGregor/music supervision:John McDaniel/directed by Patricia McGregor/Geffen/Gil Cates Theater/through March 17 A much anticipated musical in Los Angeles has been Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole, which has received previous tryouts back east. Penned by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor, who also directs the piece, the show is supposedly based on real facts from Cole's life and includes most of his standard hits arranged by John McDaniel. Currently onstage at the Gil CatesTheater of the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, Lights Out is spectacular entertainment, especially from Dule Hill as Cole and Daniel J. Watts as Sammy Davis Jr. but its book is in need of some major retooling. It is December 17, 1957 in the NBC Studio in Burbank where Cole's final  30 minute TV variety show is about to be presented live with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and Randy Van Horn Singers. Fifteen minutes to air time, Cole is in a deep state of depression over this being the final show. Why? He has millions of fans. Southern states have refused to continue paying for advertising on the show. Cole is a Negro, pure asnd simple. In spite of his fame, it's Lights Out for him. Guest star Peggy Lee has not shown up and friend Sammy Davis Jr. comes in to replace her with his amazing style of frantic comed

Over the past six years International Recording Artist Lyn Stanley has sold more than 38.000.albums - currently worldwide, but before that time she had had absolutely no singing experience whatsoever. I, like practically all journalists, was amazed to hear this. 'Not even singing along to background music on the stereo or radio as a child?' I asked. Directly and sincerely she replied,

Oliver!/book. lyrics and music by Lionel Bart/ based on Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist//directed by James A. Rocco/choreographed by Hector Guerrero/musical director: Ryan O'Connell/MTW (Musical Theatre West)/The Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach/through February 24 Oliver! is a devilishly fine musical by Lionel Bart who wrote the book, music and lyrics without collaboration. It's an uplifting story of an abused orphan who learns how to survive in 19th century London with the help of acquaintances from both sides of the track. Currently onstage via MTW at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach, the musical boasts a superb cast headed by Davis Gaines as Fagin and 15 delightful and talented child actors.

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, is a staggeringly ambitious project for any theatre. First of all, it is a period piece taking place in a foreign country, in this case Russia and belongs in the realm of literary classics, requiring or better suited to classically trained actors. Currently onstage at Actors Co-op's Crossley Theatre. Anna is directed intelligently by Heather Chesley and boasts a fine cast, but somehow lacks the stature that it deserves.

Former BWW Award winner Emrhys Cooper opens up about his latest projects. Always a man on the go, delving into athletics, modeling, dancing and having fun, his work usually aims to please. As an actor he is equally adept at comedy and drama. From the photos, it all looks terribly exciting.

Some shows I can see again and again, especially those composed by the forever upbeat Jerry Herman. Hello Dolly bowed on Broadway when I was a teenager in the 60s and it had a long run with original star Carol Channing, followed by turns with Ethel Merman, Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Martha Raye and Molly Picon, to name a few. Every major star wanted to do it because the role offers a female actress the chance to sing, dance and act the hell out of it. It's a big, splashy gut buster about a woman who has more moxy than the Pied Piper and enough wisdom and panache to win over an army or a whole kingdom, for that matter...and, for the audience, it's one of those extra-special feel-good musicals that just doesn't quit... 'It Only Takes a Moment' to fall in live with it.. You leave the theatre actually humming the tunes. The first National Tour of the latest Dolly!  at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through February 17 is just about the best starring thje glorious Betty Buckley..

Art Shulman has produced many full-length plays including The Rabbi's Mission; The Rabbi & The Shiksa; The Yentas Wear Red Hats; I Got Troubles; Doubting Thomas; I'm Not Just A Comic Genius; Rebecca's Gamble; Not One More Foot Of Land!; Bagels; Boxcar & Eugenia; Sex Is Good For You!; Old Broads Can't Dunk; God, Bring Me A Miracle; The $4 Million Giveaway; Misconceptions; Joe Carbone's Job; September 10; Career Day; and the Xmas musical, Trolls Stole The North Pole. Additionally, he's written many one-act plays, too numerous to list here.

From the very top of James McClure's one-act Laundry and Bourbon, best friends Elizabeth (Savannah Shoenecker) and Hattie (Kristin Towers-Rowles) gossip in heavy Texas accents and drink bourbon with such fierce intensity that you will end up either loving or hating them; there is no in-between. Midway Amy Lee (Sarah Zuk) makes her entrance. She is quieter but also creates trouble in her own irritating way.What is it about comedies set in the deep South? Steel Magnolias and Crimes of the Heart pull us in the same way. The women put their claws out yet support one another and have hearts of gold ... and their men?  We hear about them via their wives. They act like jerks, love to talk sex in raw detail and treat their cars with more love and respect than their spouses. Unlike the other plays, we actually see the men, apart from their wives, for there is a male companion piece to Laundry and Bourbon. It's entitled Lone Star, after the beer, and it presents Elizabeth's husband Roy (Nick Paonessa), maladjusted since his service in Viet Nam, his younger and weaker brother Ray (R.J. DeBard) and like his wife Amy Lee, the outsider in the group, her husband Skeeter (Todd Andrew Ball).

Actress/producer Dianne Fraser is a well known and much beloved gal  in and around the LA cabaret scene. She is executive producer of the popular An Evening of Classic Broadway that performs five/six times a year at Rockwell Table and Stage. She recently sat down for a look back at 2018 and to discuss her plans for 2019 for the show and for her own career as actress/singer. Sum up, if you would, the progress of An Evening of Classic Broadway in 2018. An Evening of Classic Broadway hit its stride in 2018. Brad Ellis and I celebrated a milestone with out 25th performance and have been sellin

Titanic the Musical/story and book by Peter Stone/music and lyrics by Maury Yeston/directed by Chuck Ketter/musical director: Andrew Orbison/Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre, Claremont/through February 23 In spite of the fact that it has one of the most majestic musical scores ever written for a Broadway stage by Maury Yeston in 1997, Titanic the Musical was, no pun intended, a disaster with lukewarm reception from both audiences and critics. Come to think of it, how entertaining can a musical be about the sinking of the Titanic? People were repelled by the

Actress/director Barbara Brownell has numerous credits as an actress. Broadway: Play it Again, Sam and The Ballad of Johnny Pot.  King Lear at the Actor's Studio, NY.  Touring: Oklahoma, On a Clear Day.  Regional: Zing!, Barefoot in the Park, Star Spangled Girl.  L.A.: Happy Birthday Wanda June, Dylan, A Case of Libel, Early Cabaret, Chicago, Dull Pain. She won the 2017 Broadway World award for Best Leading Actress in a play, LA . T.V. shows include Mad Men, Big Love, Night Court (3), Grey's Anatomy, Monk, L.A. Law, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, and recurring on Webster and MASH.  Films include Behind the Candelabra, Going Home, Hearts of the West, Someone to Watch Over Me, Ants, Mark of the Witch, and The Master.  In this interview, Brownell discusses acting and directing Laundry and Bourbon and Lone Star at The Group Rep, set to open this Friday January 25.

Award-winning actor/singer James Barbour is an LA onstage favorite. His charming personality, good looks and magnificent voice are all reasons to rush ro buy a ticket to 1776 opening Friday January 11 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Barbour took time from his busy schedule to chat about his involvement with the show and others in his remarkable career thus far.